ANCONA «I decided to speak because staying silent, at a certain point, becomes a form of complicity. And I’m tired of seeing our rights treated as too many requests.” Arianna, from Ascoli and mother of a five-year-old child suffering from a rare neurological pathology, denounces the situation in which caregiver mothers too often find themselves.
The testimony
«We arrived at Salesi on Thursday afternoon for routine tests. All the investigations were concluded on Friday morning, but we are still stuck here”, he explains. A planned hospitalization that extends beyond expected, a discharge postponed and a mother left alone to manage a child with complex needs. The story comes from the Pediatrics department of the Salesi hospital in Ancona and highlights the daily difficulties of those who go through healthcare. In a system that ends up abandoning doctors and patients together. «At that point – Arianna continues – I asked when we could go home. I was told that we have to wait until Monday because there is no referring doctor.” A wait which, when the patient is a clinically complex child, is not a simple extension of the calendar.
The pathology
The little one is suffering from a rare neurological pathology not yet diagnosed, is tracheotomised and fed via Peg, and requires continuous management which in the ward falls entirely on the parent. The point, Arianna underlines, is that it was not an emergency hospitalization. «It was all planned. It was supposed to be resolved in two days, not five. Today there is still no report and the conclusions of the hospitalization are missing: this is why we remain here.” To face the hospital stay, Arianna had to bring with her all the equipment necessary for the daily management of her son: fans, humidifier, aerosol, feeding pump, as well as drugs. During the night, then, another problem. «The suction tubes are finished. In the whole hospital there were two left, then fortunately the healthcare staff managed to recover some more in the morning.” And again: «We changed the cannula, but they didn’t have the clamp: here the devices are missing». A reminder that brings together the protection of Salesi’s excellence and the rights of caregiver mothers, because in their journey the difficulties of hospitalization are intertwined with those that come from outside the hospital. Arianna lives in Ascoli Piceno and is self-employed. “I’m a beautician and as a family we also run a bar: we can’t afford to stop.”
In nod
Financial support does not fill the gap: «The INPS recognizes around 500 euros per month, which does not cover everything that revolves around a rare pathology». Arianna says she is tired, but her voice cannot waver. «Sometimes it is more tiring to relate to institutions than to live with the pathology. Today my son still can’t go to school, there is no nurse. And I often hear myself say “but in his condition he’s sending us to do it”. The discharge, perhaps, will arrive on Monday. In between there are the days, which for a caregiver mother are not simply waiting.
date: 2026-02-08 01:56:00